Reviews for Hyde Park Theatre Performances
Review: A Bright New Boise by Hyde Park Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on October 18, 2014
You might suppose that Samuel Hunter's 2010 play A Bright New Boise is a satire about empty-eyed religion in the upper Midwest and the Oklahoma plains where Hobby Lobby is headquartered. Indeed, you could move the pieces around to build a case for that -- all the more so, considering that in June of this year the Supreme Court accepted the contention of Hobby Lobby and similar businesses that the owner-managers' religious convictions justified limiting …
Review: The Drawer Boy by Hyde Park Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on April 02, 2014
Let's talk about 'dark humor' for a moment, since that is the label that, faute de mieux, has been applied to this production and more generally to the art offered at the Hyde Park Theatre's curious space at 43rd and Guadalupe. The Statesman in its finite wisdom offers the following capsule description: Hyde Park Theatre mounts its second production of Michael Healey’s darkly humorous play that 10 years ago netted the company a string of local awards. …
Review: Tragedy: A Tragedy by Hyde Park Theatre
by Jessica Helmke
Published on September 22, 2013
As the play comes to an end, the reporters tire and the anchor tap dances his way to a desperate conclusion. “This is John, crapping out,” says the weatherman.
Much To Say About NothingThe sun has set. The theatre is quiet. And a play begins. Just another normal Thursday night in Austin's Hyde Park neighborhood. But maybe it’s more than that, suggests playwright Will Eno. His play Tragedy: A Tragedy is now running at Hyde Park Theatre, engaging audiences with ironic perceptions of mundane, everyday life. Eno’s repetitious cyclone of humor entertains the audience with threads of thematic action, roccoco rythmic storytelling, glimmers of conflict, lyric …
Review: Slowgirl by Hyde Park Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on March 24, 2013
Greg Pierce's script has vivid, often wildly comic dialogue and a story of satisfying depth and emotion. The two actors onstage are joined by a full unseen cast in their back stories.
I went to Costa Rica twice this week with Becky to see Sterling. Snapped up the opportunity to slip into a Monday evening preview of Slowgirl by Greg Pierce at the Hyde Park Theatre. Then on Friday I took Karen along to Sterling's open-air hacienda in the dry jungle nine hours away from San José, the capital. It wasn't a long visit -- just under ninety uninterrupted minutes on the veranda and at the labyrinth up …
Review: Tigers Be Still by Hyde Park Theatre
by Catherine Dribb
Published on July 27, 2012
Tigers Be Still will have you falling out of those new comfy chairs at the Hyde Park Theater. It's that good. Wow. Raunchy and redemptive.
Kim Rosenstock’s play Tigers Be Still is a well-woven, touching narrative about family triumph (thread that needle!), tragedy (Bette Midler karaoke is never okay) and of course, tigers. And it will have you falling out of those new comfy chairs at the Hyde Park Theater. It’s that good. With a sick mother upstairs and two sisters trying to get their sh*t together, Tigers Be Still seemed an unusual pick for Hyde Park Theatre after Marion Bridge (a play about …
Review: The Aliens by Hyde Park Theatre
by Michael Meigs
Published on March 26, 2012
Yes, these losers are geniuses -- once you accept Baker's premise that living in this world and making any artistic effort, however ineptly, gives one a glowing human dignity.
The Aliens by young play writing genius Annie Baker is a dazzling, offbeat oratorio of inarticulate thought and emotion. Out back of a Vermont coffee shop there's a dingy employee break area. K.J. and Jasper, guys from nowhere of consequence, have appropriated it as their own hang-out space, like a couple of raccoons nesting under a deck. K.J. sits motionless for long periods, lost in vague thought, surfacing from time to time to renew contact. Jude …